For scientists to emerge from their ivory towers with their gloves off is unprecedented. If this doesn't make the contemporary politicians get off their medieval thrones to save our children's future, I don't know what will.

Alas, knowing them, they most likely will ignore the independent scientists, since governmental scientists are regularly bent to fit politicians, and scientific truth routinely twisted to fit politics.

It is up to us then, and I mean the whole 6 billion of us, to make the pseudo-leaders follow our lead.

These phrases in my book, and in these two articles, are:

‘Worst- case’ scenarios becoming reality

without action the world faces decades of social unrest and war.encroaching desert

act before the planet becomes an unrecognizable — and , in places, impossible — place to live

C O P E N H A G E N — The world’s leading scientists issued a desperate plea to politicians to act on climate change Thursday, amid warnings that without action the world faces decades of social unrest and war.

REUTERS

Chinese farmers plant grass in an effort to stop an encroaching desert. Leading scientists have warned the world’s governments they must act now on global warming or see more of this.

In what was described as a watershed moment, more than 2,500 leading environmental experts agreed on a statement that told governments to act before the planet becomes an unrecognizable — and , in places, impossible — place to live.

At an emergency climate summit in Copenhagen, scientists agreed that “worst-case” scenarios were becoming reality and that, unless drastic action was taken soon, “ dangerous climate change” was imminent.

In a strongly worded message that, unusually for academics, appealed directly to politicians, they said there was “ no excuse for inaction” and that “weak and “ ineffective” governments must stand up to big business and “ vested interests.”

Steps should be “vigorously and widely implemented,” they said, to reduce greenhouse gases. Failure to do so would result in “significant risk” of “irreversible climatic shifts,” the statement added.

The plea came as Nicholas Stern, the former chief economist of the World Bank whose report two years ago drew attention to the possible results of global warming, told the conference that unless politicians grasped the gravity of the situation it would be “ devastating.”

Increases in average temperatures of six degrees by the end of the century were an increasing possibility and would produce conditions not seen on Earth for more than 30 million years, he said.

That could mean massive rises in sea level, whole areas devastated by hurricanes and others turned into uninhabitable desert, he claimed, forcing billions of people to leave their homelands. Scientists warned, for example, that many low-lying areas of Britain, for example, could be inundated by the sea.

Stern told the summit that politicians continued to underestimate the impact of climate change and that scientists needed to redouble their efforts to get them to understand.

“Much of southern Europe would look like the Sahara. Many of the major rivers of the world, serving billions of people, would dry up in the dry seasons or reroute.

“What would be the implication? Hundreds of millions of people would have to move, probably billions. What would be the implication of that? Extended conflict, social disruption, war essentially, over much of the world for many decades.”

The British economist was speaking as Prince Charles warned that nations were “at a defining moment in the world’s history’’ over climate change.

As he continued his tour of South America, he delivered his most impassioned and urgent plea yet on the need to tackle global warming, saying there were “less than 100 months” to save the planet.

The Copenhagen conference is intended to publicize the latest research on climate change ahead of December’s meeting of world leaders.

The United Nations Climate Conference, which will also be held in Copenhagen, aims to draft an updated Kyoto-style agreement on reducing emissions.

Under the Kyoto deal, developed nations have to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012.

However, during the meeting scientists have frequently spoken about how former assumptions about the risks have had to be redrawn.

They have repeatedly warned that higher than expected emissions have meant that temperatures will rise at rates far higher than thought just a few years ago.

This in turn will lead to disastrous sea level rises, melting of the icecaps and acidification of the oceans.

The weather will also change, scientists warned, resulting in destruction of the rainforests, widespread droughts and flooding.

Kevin Anderson, the research director at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in Manchester, said: “Scientists have lost patience with carefully constructed messages being lost in the political noise. We are now prepared to stand up and say enough is enough.”

OTTAWA - More than 100 leading climate scientists have launched a new offensive challenging the federal government’s climate change plan and urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper along with other Canadian politicians to accelerate efforts to crack down on human activity linked to global warming.

In an open letter sent to the prime minister, opposition leaders and Canadian premiers on Tuesday afternoon, the scientists warned that the existing national climate change policies would fail to address the dangerous impacts of global warming. They also warned that new research suggests human-caused greenhouse gas emissions could do more damage to the earth than was previously predicted in the last international assessment of climate change science from 2007.

“New analyses show that global greenhouse gas concentrations are increasing, sea level(s) rising and Arctic sea ice decreasing faster than projected only a few years ago,” said the letter, signed by 130 Canadian climate science leaders from the academic, public and private sectors. “Water shortages are predicted in the western Prairies, the Okanagan and in the Great Lakes basin. Earlier targets to avoid human interference with the climate system are now seen to be inadequate.”

In the spring of 2006, the scientists sent their first letter to the newly elected Harper government urging it to develop a national climate change strategy, but the new letter says the government isn’t moving fast enough.

More than 200 Canadian experts contributed to the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report from 2007 which was awarded a share of the Nobel Peace Prize for raising awareness about the threat of global warming.

Although they are not economists or public policy experts, many scientists believe that putting a price on the release of greenhouse gas emissions which trap heat in the atmosphere should be an essential part of a climate change strategy, said Dr. Gordon McBean, a climatologist from the University of Western Ontario who organized the letter campaign.

“Addressing greenhouse gas emissions will require a polluter-pay approach and absolute emission caps,” said the letter. “ Adaptation to the inevitable impacts of climate change is now imperative and we need a national adaptation strategy to minimize those impacts and gain whatever benefits there may be. We are concerned that the pace with which action is being taken in Canada does not reflect adequately the urgency of the threat.”

Last week, Harper described a carbon tax proposal from the Green party and the federal Liberals as an “insane” approach that would “screw everybody.”

But McBean, who was honoured on Tuesday by his university and the city of London, Ontario, for his contribution to the Nobel Prize-winning report, said he was disappointed about the reaction.

“I’m concerned at the way the debate has turned,” he said in an interview. “I think this is a very serious issue and to respond to it with what I would think are inappropriate comments is not what I would expect from our political leaders.”

The Harper government has proposed to cap the growth of emissions from large industrial facilities by imposing flexible targets per unit of production that would allow some sectors in growth such as the oilsands to increase their overall emissions.

Environment Minister John Baird has described the process of drafting regulations as a massive undertaking that he is trying to complete as fast as possible.

"Our government certainly agrees that climate change is a major issue facing both Canada and the world today," said Baird’s director of communications Garry Keller. "That’s why our government has a real plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by an absolute 20 per cent by 2020 and we certainly believe in the ’polluter pays’ principle."

He added that the government’s plan had also allowed for the creation of a carbon-trading regime in Montreal.

The letter was released as Jim Hansen, the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, issued a new warning in an interview with The Guardian that the concentration of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere has already risen above the safe level.

The Canadian scientists said that governments must make further investments in research to guide “sound policy” and international negotiations for a new treaty on global warming.

“In less than 18 months, the global community will convene in Copenhagen to put in place a new agreement to address climate change,” said the letter. “We sincerely hope that, based on the compelling science at hand, our political leaders display the urgency and determination that we believe is required.”

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About Anthony Marr

Anthony Marr
* has a degree in physics
* is the author of "OMNI-SCIENCE and the Human Destiny" (2003) and "Homo Sapiens SAVE YOUR EARTH" (2008)
* 1995, he cleaned up N. American Chinatowns of endangered species medicines
* 1996, he led "the highest-profile anti-trophy-hunting campaign in Canada" (Globe and Mail).
* 1997-1999, he worked in 3 tiger reserves in India.
* 1999, he founded Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE).
* 2004/2005, he conducted operations in Japan against whaling and dolphin slaughter.
* 2003-2011, completed 7 Compassion for Animals Road Expeditions (CARE tours, each covering 30-45 states over 4-7 months), and spoke at the National AR Conference every year
* 2009, he founded the Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
* 2010, he won the Henry Spira Grassroots Activist Award.
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/AnthonyMarr001
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.AnthonyMarr13.wordpress.com
www.Dying-for Salvation.blogspot.com